The Plymouth Duster debuted in 1970 as a sporty version of the Valiant. The front end and interior were straight from the Valiant playbook, but it was the option to equip with a 340 V8 that got people excited. However, it could also be optioned with smaller engine sizes, and this 1971 Plymouth Duster has a 225 slant-six, which would have been sufficient for everyday driving for most people. It’s currently for sale here on eBay in Redding, California. The bidding at the time of writing is just over $5,600 with the reserve not yet met and only 1 day left.
Mopar built some pretty wild muscle cars in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they’ve become so popular with collectors that they can be hard to find in good condition for an affordable price. But they also built plenty of cars that can still be fun to own and drive, especially when equipped from the factory (or upgraded later on) with desirable drivetrains. The Duster is one of those cars. With the 340 V8 option (and later a 360 that could easily be coaxed to put out over 300hp in a light-weight car) and a low price tag, the Duster was a hit.
This Duster supposedly has the Twister trim package, new for 1971. It lands between the base Duster and the Duster 340 and essentially was a Duster with more standard features, such as Rallye wheels, racing mirrors, side and lower deck stripes, a flat black hood with hood scoops, bucket seats, and a unique grille all as standard equipment. The appearance package was topped off by a little cartoon tornado with an eyes logo on the back panel near the taillights. With that said, I don’t think this is actually a Duster Twister, because most of those items are not present. Can any of you Mopar fans confirm?
Even so, the body is in pretty good shape. The seller mentions that the floor and door jambs have been repainted, but the rest of the paint is original. There is some rust forming in a couple of places around the rear wheel wells, however. The seller says he installed a new windshield right before listing the car, and even though you’ll notice in the photos that the windshield wiper arms and some window trim aren’t installed, they are fortunately included with the car.
The interior has recently been completely replaced, including headliner, seat covers, door panels, package tray, dash cover, and carpet. There was also a new floor pan put in, which was professionally painted afterward. The interior looks great with the only exception being some chipped wood applique around the gauge cluster.
The drivetrain is Mopar’s venerable 225 cubic-inch slant-six paired to a 3-speed floor-mounted manual transmission, which puts out around 145 hp. The seller says the engine was rebuilt around 2006 before it was parked and stored in a garage. It now has a new gas tank and a rebuilt single-barrel Holley carburetor, and we are told it “purrs like a kitten” with no smoking or leaks anywhere. This car is a solid turn-key opportunity for someone. Would you continue to drive it as-is, or begin upgrades to make it feel more like a muscle car?
Drive it.
No “A51” code on the fender tag? It’s not a Twister.
Agree not a twister. I think he just says twister to spam anyone searching for a duster twister, same reason he said 340. Sort of surprised he
Did not mention it was nicer than his hemi cuda or superbird
I can dig the Slant-6 but that bodywork and paint need to be first on the list for me. I could live with the color but it looks like it’s been sitting in the desert since 1971.
And the Duster’s naturally big butt make those factory 14-inchers look positively teeny- need to upgrade to 15” Rallyes and some fatter meats in the rear.
If the price doesn’t go much higher, add in at least $10k for bodywork and paint, and you’d be at about what a good condition ‘71 Slanty Duster should go for.
Should have the 340 Shark tooth grill
Where does this “low mileage” claim come in besides the headline?
That’s a nice old car. But not a low mileage one.
My own Valiant only had 13,000 miles on it when I bought it in 1981. And rust in the trunk, an oil drinking habit, rust in the lower rear fenders, a third paint job [ factory red under Earl Scheib beige under refrigerator home garage sprayed white ], worn out suspension. But yeah !!! Low mileage. /sarc.
These things only have five digit .0 odometers FFS.
This is just a base Duster , not a Twister – some Twisters also came with the sharktooth grille the 340 cars had , but ive seen some without them too. If the trunk is original to the car it shows its an early 71 as the later 71s trunk lids have a raised line in the center ; they were all the same after that through 1976. The Duster tornado was not exclusively on the Twister package, higher line Dusters had them as well, the one on the trunk here is not in a place where Plymouth would have put them.
Someone hacked the dash for a larger radio, so a new dash will have to be sourced – not hard , as there are still plenty around, but time consuming !
The Duster Twister tornado looks a lot like the Tasmanian Devil in motion as seen in the old Warner Bros cartoons. Was there a licensing agreement like that for the Road Runner?
Supposedly Plymouth wanted it to be the Tasmanian Devil but Warner Bros. wanted too much money to let them use it , so Plymouth came up with the eyes in the tornado .